Christian Capsules: Sunday is the Problem
Jermaine Ferrell: [00:00:00] How effective can we be as American Christians, when most of us only live for Sunday? Fixing Christianity, one dose at a time. Que the intro.
Welcome to Christian Capsules. I'm your host, Jermaine Ferrell, and this is capsule number four. And as always, you can contact me at christiancapsules at gmail. com. For premium content, you can go over to our Patreon, which is patreon. com slash Christian Capsules, and then you can go to our website, which is christiancapsules.
buzzsprout. com. And again, as always, our scripture is read from the NESB 95 Update Edition. Today, we talk about American Christians and Sunday. I want to read two verses. The first verse comes from Ephesians 5, 15 through [00:01:00] 16. It says, Therefore, be careful how you walk, not as unwise men, but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil.
And 2 Timothy 2, 15. Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed. Accurately Handling the Word of Truth. Alright, today I want to tackle the subject of American Christians and how we only live and move for Sunday. But first, I want to start off by giving the state of things.
The American Christian Church seems to lack any sort of power from the Holy Spirit and our church is seen weak and powerless. This is extremely concerning because our country is ever increasingly moving away from Christianity. The nation sees a mass exodus of this once Christian nation to a free for all of nothingness.
I mean, I don't know how much I can say this nation was [00:02:00] Christian before, being that we have slavery and racism and women's oppression, but it's worse now, let's put it like that. The Christian name is also in a dirt and his reputation is deeply tarnished. Now, before anybody gets upset, I'm not talking about straight up legitimate persecution, and I'm not referring to pride preachers, or health and wealth gospel preachers, or even political leaders masquerading as Christian.
No, I'm talking about the reputation that Christianity right now rightfully deserves. I'm not talking about Christianity and mission trips overseas or mission trips done out of town. We got that handled. We're good with that kind of stuff. But I'm talking about here locally. How is it that our Christianity is so poorly practiced and we have so So many non-amped-up Christians.[00:03:00]
In reality, our power from the Holy Spirit has been muted. I'm talking about American Christian power has been muted. Based on the way we view our typical day in the life of Christianity. So, what happened? I'll tell you, power happened. Or better yet, lack of power happened. See, each Christian has the power of the Holy Spirit within them.
And when we live by the Spirit daily, we see miraculous things happen. Unbelievers see them as well. And this gives the Holy Spirit a chance to plant seeds, convert, and grow. The Holy Spirit is able to flex His power when we evangelize. And there are two ways that we evangelize. One is gospel by way of mouth.
And two is gospel by living out life as a Christian. Um, I'm going to read to you a verse from Acts 1. 8. [00:04:00] It says, But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem and all of Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth. Now listen to me good.
When our flesh gets in the way and suppresses the Holy Spirit within us, it is called quenching the Holy Spirit. Paul talks about this in 1 Corinthians. 519. He says, do not quench the spirit. This is a command from the Word of God. However, despite that command, American Christians still suppress or quench the Holy Spirit every day of the week except for Sunday.
When the Holy Spirit is quenched, the Spirit is not able to provide the power that Christians need to do the things that God requires us to do. So how do we get here? How did we get to the point where the Holy Spirit is being quenched every day? And the problem is Sunday. Sunday is the [00:05:00] problem. Now let me say this off the bat.
I am not against church. I have no problem with Sundays. Or Saturdays if some people have Saturday service. Or any of that stuff. I myself am involved with at least, um, three church services every week. So, I'm not against Sunday. But I'm going to show you where Sunday stands as a problem to some Christians.
On Sunday, we are supposed to gather as a body of believers and worship and hear the Lord speak. Very few people will even argue this. The problem comes that is when we place Sunday as the most important day of the week. Let me repeat that. The problem comes when we've made Sunday our primary focus. Or rather, the day we place extreme importance on.
We tend to think of Sunday as the end all be all of the week for Christians in America. [00:06:00] I mean, let's face it. We get up for Sunday, right? We get it going for Sunday, right? We're amped. I mean, we put on very nice clothes if we have them. The perfume and cologne comes out. We even act our best and we are even kindest for that hour and a half, two hours.
We check out other people, how they're dressed and how they behave. We sing and sway in place. We put our money in the offering. We laugh at the pastor's jokes or references. We may even listen to his sermon. But when time gets close to the end, what do we do? We start looking at the time. Our attention span, or excuse me, our attention span drops.
And then we're now focused on lunch. Or for some people, second breakfast. Am I right? I mean, come on, am I right? Our view is basically not Sunday the day but how we view [00:07:00] Sundays in general. You know, and before you go there with, well, it's the pastor's fault or the church leader's fault. They framed our view by worrying about tithes and offerings and stuff like that.
We know what they do. We know that they have to, um, worry about money for staff, missions and programs and stuff like that. So, of course, they're going to push those things. But that didn't shape our view or how we view Sundays, right? What we, what our problem is, We don't come to church with an expected heart, right?
We're far too concerned with looking good and acting good, but not coming spiritually ready. And what I mean by that is, many of us are not coming with a confessing and repenting soul. We're not praying to hear God's word expounded on. Nor do we understand what to do even after hearing from the Father.
And then, most of us don't even go home and follow up searching the [00:08:00] scriptures like the Bereans did in Acts. And lastly, and I have to say this, many Christians come to church as hypocrites. And before you say it's not true, I know it's true. I've seen it with my own eyes. I've seen fellow Christians be one way at church and another way throughout the work week.
And it's not good. Unfortunately, Church Day is often seen as the bookend to the weekend, and not the beginning of a holy Christian week. You want power back in the American Church? You want the Holy Spirit to be seen moving and working in American Christian lives? Then reverse your view on Sunday being the only Christian day of the week that matters.
Truth be told, Every day besides Sunday should be your primary focus day. I mean, what good is Sunday [00:09:00] if every day after are Satan days? I'll say that again. What good is Sunday if every day after are Satan days? You know how new paragraphs have drop caps? Uh, the first letter of the paragraph that drops down a few lines when starting a new paragraph?
Well, Sunday is supposed to be the Christian drop cap of the week. It kicks off your week of living as a godly witness. I mean, really living your typical day to day as a Christian. This means going to work and viewing your work as a mission field. Uh, being a witness for your boss and other employees.
Being set apart, being holy. Or maybe your mission field is raising your children, teaching them and raising them in the ways of the Lord. Or maybe you go to school and we should let [00:10:00] your fellow classmates see Christ in you. Basically, live life as a Christian every day because God created more days than just Sunday.
Let me say that again. Live life as a Christian every day, because God created more days of the week besides Sunday. Then, power will return, because the Holy Spirit will no longer be quenched, and it will be allowed to work unhindered. That's it for this capsule. Uh, thank you all for being here and listening.
And I'll catch you guys in the next one You